A Brazilian opposition party has filed a petition for the impeachment of President Michel Temer, underlining the growing difficulties facing the center-right leader as he tries to introduce austerity reforms.
	The impeachment demand filed yesterday by the PSOL, a small leftist party, was unlikely to be accepted, so had mostly symbolic significance. The PSOL argues that Temer committed crimes by allegedly interfering in a business dispute to aid a friend in his cabinet.
	Temer denies any wrongdoing in the affair.
	Another impeachment request is expected from the leftist Workers' Party soon.
	Temer's allies control both the lower house and Senate in Congress, meaning that even if an impeachment petition were ever put to the vote it would not pass.
	However, the development is an embarrassment to Temer who came to power this year after the bitterly fought impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff, from the Workers' Party, for breaking government accounting rules.
	The spat also comes as ...

Brazilian opposition demands Temer impeachment

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A US federal judge has granted self-described white supremacist Dylann Roof's request to represent himself at trial on charges of gunning down nine African-American churchgoers last year in South Carolina.
	US District Judge Richard Gergel's ruling means that Roof, 22, could cross-examine survivors and family members of those he mowed down in June 2015 during a Bible study class at the historic "Mother Emmanuel" black church in Charleston.
	"I do find defendant has the personal capacity to self-representation," Gergel said.
	"I continue to believe it is strategically unwise, but it is a decision you have the right to make."
	Federal prosecutors are seeking to put Roof to death, and have refused to accept his offer to plead guilty to the 33 federal charges against him -- including hate crime violations that could carry the death penalty -- in exchange for a life sentence.
	Roof is also facing state murder charges in South Carolina and faces the death penalty for his allegedly ...

US church shooter to represent self at trial

An alert and chatty Italian woman, Emma Morano, today celebrates her 117th birthday as the last known person alive who was born in the 19th century.
	Born November 29, 1899,  she is the world's oldest living person and the secret to her longevity appears to lie in eschewing usual medical wisdom.
	"I eat two eggs a day, and that's it. And cookies. But I do not eat much because I have no teeth," she told AFP in an interview last month in her room in Verbania, a town in northern Italy on Lake Maggiore.
	On a marble-topped chest of drawers stands proudly the Guinness World Records certificate declaring her to be the oldest person alive.
	The eldest of eight children who has outlived all her younger siblings, Morano knows that this landmark birthday will be an event to celebrate and that people are curious about her.
	"People come. I don't invite anybody but they come. From America, Switzerland, Austria, Turin, Milan... They come from all over to see me," she said with an amused ...

Emma Morano, last person alive born in 1800s, turns 117

Amnesty International denounced as "shocking" weekend clashes between security forces and royal guards in Uganda which left 62 dead, saying many victims appeared to have been executed.
	The bloodshed, which took place in a traditional kingdom in the west, broke out when a joint patrol of police and troops was attacked by the royal guards in the town of Kasese.
	The clashes continued into Sunday until police stormed the palace, arresting King Charles Wesley Mumbere of the Rwenzururu kingdom.
	Speaking to AFP yesterday, police spokesman Andrew Felix Kaweesi said the intial death toll of 55 had risen to 62, including 16 police officers and 46 royal guards.
	The royal guards are believed to be part of a militia agitating for the creation of an independent republic straddling Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
	Police said the king had been taken into custody in Kampala, with another spokesman telling NTV television that 139 royal guards had been arrested,
	The violence drew a ...

Amnesty slams 'shocking' Uganda clashes as toll hits 62

An Indonesian woman screamed in agony today as she was caned in Aceh, the latest in a growing number of women to be publicly flogged for breaking the province's strict Islamic laws.
	Aceh is the only province in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country that imposes sharia law. People can face floggings for a range of offences -- from gambling, to drinking alcohol, to gay sex.
	In the latest caning, five people -- two women and three men -- were flogged in front of a cheering crowd at a mosque in the provincial capital Banda Aceh.
	The 34-year-old woman who yelled in pain had been found guilty of spending time in close proximity with a man who was not her husband in contravention of Aceh's Islamic regulations.
	She was lashed seven times with a rattan cane by a man wearing long robes and a hood, with just slits for the eyes.
	"It hurts so bad," the woman said, raising her arms into the air, as she was beaten.
	The 32-year-old man with whom she was caught was also flogged seven 

Indonesian woman screams in pain during Aceh caning

The White House today pushed back on President-elect Donald Trump's unsubstantiated claim that "millions of people" voted illegally in the November election, saying there was "no evidence" of mass fraud.
	"There has been no evidence produced to substantiate a claim like that," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

WH says 'no evidence' of voter fraud, despite Trump claim

The suspect in today's attack at Ohio State University rammed into pedestrians with a car and attacked them with a butcher knife, before being shot dead by police, officials said.
	Asked if authorities were considering the incident to be a terror attack, Columbus police chief Kim Jacobs said that investigators were considering it to be a "possibility."
	"About 9:52 am, a male suspect drove a vehicle over the curb... Struck pedestrians," Craig Stone, chief of police at the university, told a news conference.
	"He exited the vehicle, and used a butcher knife to start cutting pedestrians."
	"Our officer was on scene in less than a minute and he ended the situation in less than a minute. He engaged the suspect, and he eliminated the threat," Stone added.
	Nine people were transported to hospitals -- eight of them in stable condition and one critical, he said.
	Jacobs said there was no indication of multiple suspects in the attack, despite witness accounts suggesting several attackers were 

Ohio suspect attacked pedestrians with butcher knife: Official

One of Hungary's main Muslim organisations decried today what it said were "xenophobic" steps taken by an ultra-nationalist town mayor to preserve traditional Christian values and prevent immigration.
	Asothalom, close to the Serbian border, last week banned mosque construction, the use of a muezzin at prayer times and the wearing of clothes such as the niqab and the burkini.
	The Hungarian Islamic Community (MIK) said in a statement it was "shocked by the increasing xenophobia and serious Islamophobia in Hungary which has now peaked with the decree".
	The steps were taken to "protect the community and its traditions from any mass settlement from outside," said Mayor Laszlo Toroczkai, who is also a vice-president of the radical-right Jobbik party.
	Toroczkai gained prominence in 2015 when he filmed an action movie-style video at a fence on the Serbian border warning migrants not to enter Hungary. Asothalom has few refugees.
	MIK, set up in 1990, is the oldest group representing ...

Muslim outcry over Hungarian town's anti-Islam decree

Five gunmen, some of them wearing suicide belts, attacked the Iraqi city of Samarra today, killing at least four members of the security forces, officials said.
	"A group from the Daesh terrorist gang tried to infiltrate Samarra and forces confronted them and killed them," the Joint Operations Command said in a statement, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
	Samarra, which lies 110 kilometres north of Baghdad, is home to a major security headquarters and to an important Shiite shrine where a 2006 bombing touched off two years of sectarian bloodletting.
	At least four members of the Iraqi security forces were killed and one wounded in the attack, the JOC and other security officials said.
	Security officials said the assailants came from the western bank of the Tigris, crossed it on a boat and attacked a building belonging to the Salaheddin provincial council.
	A curfew was briefly slapped on the city as security forces combed the area for any additional ...

Suicide gunmen attack Iraqi city of Samarra

Ohio suspect attacked pedestrians with 'butcher knife,'

Eight people were injured when an attacker apparently drove into a crowd at Ohio State University today, triggering an hours-long lockdown before authorities declared the campus secure.
	Law enforcement shot and killed one suspect, according to local television station WBNS, which reported that police led two people out in handcuffs from a garage they had surrounded on the university's main campus in Columbus.
	A witness suggested that a suspect was driving a red SUV.
	The incident was called an active shooter situation, but it was unclear whether any of the victims had suffered firearm injuries.
	Some reports suggested the attacker or attackers used a knife.
	"Shelter in Place lifted. Scene is now secure. ALL classes are canceled on Columbus campus for the remainder of the day," the OSU emergency management services tweeted as it declared the incident over.
	Television footage showed students leaving school buildings as Rebecca Diehm, spokeswoman for the Columbus fire department, ...

Eight hurt in Ohio State campus attack, alert over

About 1.4 billion jobs and three-quarters of all crops depend on pollinators, researchers said today warning of a dire threat to human welfare if the falls in bee and butterfly numbers are not halted.
	"World food supplies and jobs are at risk unless urgent action is taken to stop global declines of pollinators," said a statement from the University of Reading, whose researchers took part in the global review.
	Animal pollination directly affects about three-quarters of important crop types, including most fruits, seeds and nuts and high-value products such as coffee, cocoa and oilseed rape.
	Pollinators added some USD 235-577 billion (222-545 billion euros) to crop output per year, said the team.
	"Agriculture employs 1.4 billion people, approximately one-third of the world's economically active labour force," said the review published in the journal Nature.
	"This is particularly important to the world's poorest rural communities, 70 per cent of whom rely on agriculture as the main .

1.4 bn jobs depend on pollinators: report

A renewed pilots' strike will ground around 1,700 flights at European aviation giant Lufthansa on Tuesday and Wednesday, the group said, as a long-running and costly battle over pay drags on.
	Around 180,000 passengers will be affected by the walkout, Lufthansa said Monday, after last-minute talks with pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit failed to reach a wages deal.
	A spokesman for the group told AFP it would seek an injunction from a Munich labour court to block the strike, although a similar request was rejected by a Frankfurt court last week and the airline lost a second time at appeal.
	Pilots have been battling the German behemoth since April 2014 over pay.
	During a two-day pause in the strike yesterday and today, Lufthansa offered the flight crew a 4.4-per cent pay rise spread over two years, as well as a one-off payment equivalent to two months' wages.
	But pilots stuck to their demand of a pay rise of an average of 3.66 per cent per year, retroactive for the past five ...

Pilots' strike pushes Lufthansa to cut 1,700 flights

At least eight people were injured today following an apparent shooting at Ohio State University, media reported, with the Columbus campus still on lockdown and on alert.
	One person was in critical condition, CNN reported, citing the Columbus Fire Department. NBC earlier reported that two were in stable condition and the conditions of the others was unknown.
	The university's emergency management service urged students and staff to shelter in place.
	"Buckeye Alert: Active Shooter on campus. Run Hide Fight. Watts Hall. 19th and College," the service said in a tweet.
	A second tweet moment later told the public to "Continue to shelter in place. Avoid area of College."
	Ohio State is one of the largest universities in the United States, with roughly 60,000 students on the main campus in Columbus.

Eight hurt as active shooter reported at Ohio State: media

Seven people were hospitalised today following an apparent shooting at Ohio State University, media reported, with the Columbus campus still on lockdown and on alert.
	Of the seven people taken to hospital, two were in stable condition while the condition of the other five was unknown, NBC reported, citing the Columbus Fire Department.

Seven hospitalised in Ohio campus shooting: TV networks

US intelligence helped French warplanes target Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, one of Al-Qaeda's key allies in North Africa, and believes he was killed, an American official said today.
	Belmokhtar, a notorious faction commander in the Al-Murabitoun jihadist group, was likely killed in a strike in Libya earlier this month, the official said.

French strike likely killed Al-Qaeda ally Belmokhtar: US

Throngs of Cubans began streaming to Havana's iconic Revolution Square to pay tribute to Fidel Castro today, kicking off an emotional, week-long farewell to the divisive Cold War titan.
	Mourners, many of whom had lined up before dawn, began filling the square as soon as it opened with a salvo of 21 cannon shots from a colonial fort overlooking Havana harbor.
	They filed past a black-and-white picture of "El Comandante" as a young revolutionary, many clutching bouquets of flowers, many others in tears.
	"I got here at 6:00 pm yesterday. I don't know what to say," said Josefina Vayan Bravo, a 44-year-old housewife, before breaking into sobs.
	Castro, whose 1959 revolution toppled a dictatorship with the promise of bringing justice and equality to his Caribbean island, was a towering figure of the 20th century.
	While some saw him as a socialist hero who brought education and free health care to this country, others labeled him a "dictator" who caused economic hardship and sparked an ...

Throngs pay homage to Cuba's Fidel Castro

Pakistan's national flag carrier said today it has raised USD 130 million in fresh financing from a banking consortium, as the airline staggers under the weight of earlier loans totalling more than USD 3 billion.
	Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) said in a statement the financing facility was arranged by Pakistan's United Bank Limited (UBL) and Credit Suisse Singapore as lead bankers, in addition to the state-run National Bank of Pakistan.
	"The (financing) facility... Will be utilised by PIA for its general working capital requirements and in improvement in passenger services," the  statement said.
	However, a PIA official requesting anonymity said the fresh loan might be utilised to help settle earlier loans.
	PIA's cumulative loans stand at around 329 billion rupees, or USD 3.16 billion. It suffers heavy financial losses annually, posting a 32 billion rupee loss in 2015.
	Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government tried to privatise the airline earlier this year but its 18,000 ..

Pakistani flag carrier raises USD 130 million

The United States and Cuba expanded air links today, kicking off direct flights to Havana for the first time in more than 50 years.
	The departure of an American Airlines flight from Miami at 7:30 am (1230 GMT) came just days after the death of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro at age 90, as throngs of Cubans flock to Havana's Revolution Square to pay last respects to the divisive Cold War titan.
	"It's a once in a lifetime experience, it will be interesting to see how people are responding to his passing," passenger Priva Rhat told reporters on the flight, which set off from Miami with a water cannon salute.
	In New York, the first JetBlue Airways flight bound for Havana departed an hour and a half later.
	Air travel between the United States and Cuba had been restricted to charter flights from 1979 until earlier this year.
	Direct commercial flights began on August 31, linking several US airports with nine Cuban cities, many of them in or near tourism hotspots.
	There are now 110 ...

US airlines launch direct flights to Cuba's Havana

Syria launched a blistering verbal attack today on "Western" countries that have accused it of using chemical weapons in its deadly five-year conflict, calling the allegations "a campaign of lies".
	"The multitude of accusations, made in some Western circles without any tangible evidence, as to the responsibility of the Syrian government in cases of use of toxic chemicals are but a part of a coordinated and repeated campaign of lies," Syria's deputy foreign minister Faisal Mekdad said.
	He was speaking at the annual conference of countries belonging to the Chemical Weapons Convention, an arms treaty that bounds all its member states to help rid the world of chemical weapons.
	More than 300,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011.
	Both the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Islamic State group have been accused of unleashing toxic arms during the conflict.
	A panel set up by the UN, known as the Joint ...

Syria calls chemical arms accusations 'campaign of lies'

US President-elect Donald Trump today threatened to put an end to the thaw in ties with Cuba unless Havana makes concessions on human rights and opening up its economy.
	"If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the US as a whole, I will terminate deal," Trump said on Twitter.

AFP

AFP

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